Mandy Moore – “I’d Rather Lose”

The moment Mandy Moore covered Little Feat’s “Willin’” (made famous by none other than Linda Ronstadt) on This is Us, it was evident what style of music fit her like a glove these days. Her second new single in 10 years, “I’d Rather Lose” contains a silky, bluesy tinge of ‘70s country-rock that smolders in all the right amounts.

“I’d rather lose if the only way to win is by breaking all the rules,” she sings. She holds a strong sense of morality, as she wrestles against the chances she’s willing or unwilling to take. But it cuts much deeper and wider than that. “It’s easy to run out of patience and give into temptations on any given day,” she toldRolling Stone, “but it seems like the only way of achieving the kind of long term peace of mind we’re all looking for, requires a recommitment to the concepts of honesty and integrity that ground us.”

With “I’d Rather Lose,” co-write with Sean Douglas (Thomas Rhett, Bebe Rexha) and Taylor Goldsmith (frontman of indie-rock band Dawes, as well as Moore’s husband), she accepts her personal truths – the weighted beliefs that may be the only thing we have left in this world. She later contends with numerous existential questions, to which she doesn’t quite have all the answers yet: “Are you happy with you life? Am I happy with mine? Where is the innocence we hid behind? And who were those kids who knew where to draw the line?”